Construction Begins on New York's 1st Official Wind Farm

New York State broke ground on Friday on its first offshore wind farm, kicking off a boom in similar projects aimed at transforming the state’s — and the nation’s — energy mix. The South Fork Wind project off the coast of Long Island is expected to be operational by the end of 2023. New York has the largest pipeline of offshore wind projects underway of any state in the nation, with five in active development. South Fork Wind is being billed as one of the first-ever commercial-scale offshore wind farms in North America.

Offshore Wind Farms Could Double as Charging Stations For Ships

Shipping giant Maersk and other firms are developing tech to help the maritime industry ditch dirty diesel and run on wind power. Offshore wind farms already provide gigawatts of clean electricity to the grid worldwide. Now efforts are underway to supply some of that wind-blown power directly to ships. Most vessels burn dirty diesel fuels to carry people and cargo across the water, trailing large amounts of greenhouse gases and toxic air pollution in their wake. In 2021, carbon dioxide emissions from the global shipping industry rose by 4.9 percent over the previous year amid a surge in seaborne trade.

Protecting Critical Habitat: Proposal Aims to Expand Coral Reef Off Texas Coast

Video explores amazing coral reef 100 miles from coast

If you’re familiar with the Texas coast, which isn’t exactly known for having crystal clear water, you probably never would have suspected that a mere 100 miles off Galveston is a 56-square-mile marine sanctuary. The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is the only sanctuary site located in the Gulf of Mexico, and is home to a myriad of sea life, including 20 species of hard corals, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

How to Plant Millions of Oysters in a Day

Conservationists and community members collaborate on an ambitious project to revive oysters in a Chesapeake Bay tributary. How do you inject 24 million baby oysters into a river in one afternoon? Conservationists working on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, have a trick: sluice them off a boat deck with a fire hose. As the captain of a 22-meter-long buyboat reaches his first drop point on the Severn River’s tidal estuary in August, he signals to a deckhand gripping the hose at the ship’s bow. Water pumped from the river spews from the nozzle with the roar of a rushing waterfall, and the deckhand angles it at a pile of oyster shells as tall as a Christmas tree.

Lighted Fishing Nets May Save Sharks, Sea Turtles From Accidental Entrapment

Fishing nets that glow green with LED lights may prevent sea turtles, sharks and rays, including many threatened species, from becoming accidentally entangled, a study found. Experts say bycatch, the unwanted fish and marine life caught by commercial fishing, accounts for 40% - or 38 million tons - of the world's global catch. The study publish in the journal Current Biology compared the performance of regular gill nets — vertical panels of netting that hang below the surface — to illuminated ones off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

Sounds of a Healthy Ocean Can Bring Degraded Ecosystems Back to Life

Just as big cities draw more people, a bustling part of the seas seems to draw more life. Biologists hope to repopulate stressed regions. A healthy marine ecosystem is an orchestra of sounds — the rhythmic humming of fish calling to each other, crabs scuttling along reefs and sea grass rustling in the currents. But when an ecosystem is dying, not much life is there to make sounds. Marine animals don’t tend to flock to these wastelands. So when an ecosystem is degraded by human interference, storms or heat waves, it has a harder time coming back to life.

Saving the Manatees — Rescue by Rescue, Rehab by Rehab

Florida is scrambling to prevent another horrific year of starvation deaths among the beloved mammals

On an unusually cold winter morning in central Florida, Corleone the manatee was awakened before dawn by wetsuited workers who slipped into his pool at SeaWorld and wrapped him in a long vinyl sling. A crane slowly hoisted him out of the water and carefully lowered him to the rear door of an empty box truck, where other staff pushed, pulled and slid their “manatee burrito” inside. Two hopped in to keep Corleone company on his latest journey.

What Drives Sea Level Rise? US Report Warns of 1-Foot Rise Within Three Decades and More Frequent Flooding

Sea levels are rising, and that will bring profound flood risks to large parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts over the next three decades.

A new report led by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that the U.S. should prepare for 10-12 inches of relative sea level rise on average in the next 30 years.

Sea Level to Rise One Foot Along U.S. Coastlines by 2050, Government Report Finds

The shorelines of the United States are projected to face an additional foot of rising seas over the next three decades, intensifying the threat of flooding and erosion to coastal communities across the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Human-caused climate change, driven mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, has accelerated global sea level rise to the fastest rate in more than 3,000 years.

Mountain Glaciers  May Hold Less Ice Than Previously Thought – Here’s What That Means For 2 Billion Downstream Water Users and Sea Level Rise

Mountain glaciers are essential water sources for nearly a quarter of the global population. But figuring out just how much ice they hold – and how much water will be available as glaciers shrink in a warming world – has been notoriously difficult.

In a new study, scientists mapped the speed of over 200,000 glaciers to get closer to an answer.

Blizzard-like 'bomb cyclones' Get Boost From Warming Oceans

The warming of ocean waters through climate change creates ideal conditions for more “bomb cyclone” events like the one that battered the Northeast with extreme winter weather in late January, experts say.

The storm brought 23.6 inches of snow to the Boston area, tying its single-day snowfall record, and led to at least four deaths on Long Island, N.Y. Across Massachusetts, nearly 9,000 customers were left without power for the remainder of the weekend.

The Future of Hurricanes if Full of Floods—Lots of Them

Future hurricanes will bring more extreme flooding to coastal cities in the eastern United States due to a double hit from worsening storm surge and heavy rainfall, scientists reported on February 3 in Nature Climate Change.

The researchers simulated how climate change could alter the impacts of tropical cyclones through the end of the 21st century. They found that the combined frequency of intense storm surge and rainfall that clobbers the coastline may increase by seven to 36 times in the southern US and 30 to 195 times in the Northeast.

Warming Ocean Leaves No Safe Havens for Coral Reefs

New research finds coral refugia, where reefs are protected from global warming by cool local currents, are disappearing faster than expected. In the race to save at least some remnants of the world’s coral reefs, a new study shows only one thing really matters—capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. Even at only that level of warming, more than 99 percent of areas previously seen as potentially safe havens for coral will disappear. Warming of 2 degrees C would wipe out all the “reef refugia” where corals might survive relentlessly warming oceans.

The Battle to Save Waikiki Beach

Hawaii’s most iconic beach is quickly becoming a poster child for why it’s so hard to adapt to a changing climate.

Waikiki might be one of the most famous beaches in the world, a synonym for surfing and sun-soaked vacations that draw millions of people annually. But for years, Honolulu and the State of Hawaii have been reckoning with a very uncomfortable fact: The beach is vanishing. Just below the infinity pool at the Sheraton Waikiki, an advancing shoreline claimed a walkway and set of concrete stairs, which now dangle above the water.

On the Cajun Coast, a Chef Grapples With Threats to a Seafood Tradition

From her New Orleans restaurant, Melissa Martin sees the environmental damage that could end the region’s rich culture of food and fishing.

Days before Hurricane Ida hit last August, Maxine and Lanny Martin bought 150 pounds of shrimp in Chauvin, the coastal Louisiana town where they live. The shrimp came from fishers along Bayou Petit Caillou, which runs a few blocks from the house where the Martins raised six children, including Melissa Martin, a chef and cookbook author in New Orleans.

Tampa Bay Has a Huge Flood Risk. What Should We Do About It?

Thousands of years ago, researchers say, the people who lived in what we now call Florida had to accommodate rising seas.

They responded, excavations suggest, by retreating. Kenneth Sassaman, a University of Florida archaeologist, has theorized that some even picked up and reburied the bones of their ancestors. This ancient problem is not so different from the conundrum Floridians face today, he thinks. It shows that nature is always in control, but people can adapt.